I recently had the pleasure of working with an organization that I support and greatly admire: WWF Canada. The mission of WWF Canada is to stop the degradation of the planet’s natural environment and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature. The organization is led by David Miller (environmental leader, former Mayor of Toronto, and die-hard TFC fan!) who oversees a number of offices and initiatives all across the country. WWF Canada has active support from over 150,000 Canadians and contributes millions of dollars each year towards invaluable conservation work.
Non-profits like WWF Canada are facing a number of new challenges and opportunities due to ongoing changes in digital media and technology. The rise of crowd-funding, mobile giving, social media activism (among other trends) have forced organizations to re-examine long-held practices for recruiting donors, raising funds, and sharing results. My work with WWF Canada focused on examining these trends, and determining how to best utilize digital channels to maximize fundraising efforts. The following is a Trends Matrix that synthesizes some of my initial research work. It is a simple framework to summarize insights from different categories (vertical axis) across a time-horizon (horizontal axis). I find it to be a useful tool for recognizing patterns, speculating on future developments, and brainstorming new opportunities.
As you can see from the Trend Matrix, there are a number of different ways in which digital media and technology are impacting how non-profits need to operate in 2017 and beyond. And I can tell you that the fantastic team at WWF Canada is well-placed to take advantage of these emerging opportunities. You can find out more about WWF Canada (or even better, donate!) here.